


Enigma

by Wandering_Traveler



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Anger, Curse Breaking, Curses, Elemental Magic, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, No Smut, Poison, Revenge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:48:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23371195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wandering_Traveler/pseuds/Wandering_Traveler
Summary: when a beast lives for too long it becomes an enigma. They gained human intelligence and became even stronger.  In a world where people hunt beasts and enigma for sport how will the two enigma children, Alois and Ciel survive.
Relationships: Sebastian Michaelis & Ciel Phantomhive, Sebastian Michaelis/Ciel Phantomhive, light Ciel Phantomhive/Alois Trancy
Kudos: 7





	1. The Market

Ciel walked through the market covered in a raggedy blue cloak. He needed fruit from the water beast and this market was the only place that sold it. He wished his friend was here to help him out as he didn't go shopping often and was an easy target for swindlers to sell him cheap goods at an absurd price. 

“Young man come have a gander at these gems. They match your eyes.”

“You look small come have a look at these crabs my men just fished up from the sea.”

“You should come see these clothes. Those rags are falling apart, about time you replaced it”

Ciel was overwhelmed by all the noise. He had never been very fond of attention. He knew his rags made him stand out but at least he stood out for a normal reason. All he needed to do was get the water beast fruit and then he could leave, but curse his height, he couldn’t see a thing in the crowd. He couldn't ask for help because he didn't trust himself to be able to do it without looking suspicious.everyone in town knew exactly where every shop was. If he asked it would mar him as an outsider. Curses he really wasn’t good at this but failure was not an option. If he didn't get that fruit today all hell would break loose.”

“Come one come all to get the fruit from the elusive water beast.”

There!

Ciel walked up to the hairy man shouting about the fruit. “Umm excuse me sir, how fresh are these.”

“Why they just brought in a new shipment this morning” He couldn't tell if the man was lying or not. He received the fruit every month but had no way of knowing how fresh it was unless he tasted it, and he couldn’t very well ask for that… it would be a dead giveaway. 

“How much for 10 of these”

“10!! What are you? A rich boy? That will be 30,000 krols” Ciel wanted to kick himself. He should have asked for the price of 1 and done the math in his head. He was certain they weren't worth that much, and because of that he only had 10,000 krols on him.

Ciel reached into a small pouch he carried with him just in case this happened. “Umm I don't have that much on me. Could I buy them with this?” He placed 13 sapphire scales on the counter. He mustered the most innocent look he could when the taller man looked at him in shock.

“How did you get these!?” he bellowed “these are so rare I haven't even seen them in real life, only heard of ‘em” the man was so loud in his shocked question, others were beginning to gather around to see what was so rare that the ragged child had. 

“My dad’s a beast hunter. He gave me these and told me to make sure I brought back at least 10 of those fruits. So will you let me pay with those instead?”

“Of course!! Here you can have 20- no 30” Ciel smiled like the child he was. 

“Wow! That great but I don't have anything to carry it with”

“No problem” the large man handed Ciel a large basket to carry the fruit. 

“Thank you” Ciel yelled as he walked away with his prize. He tried not to laugh when he was out of range of the crowd. His father was no beast hunter. His father wasn't anything except dead in the ground next to his mother. Those scales were just some that fell off of ciel when he was sleeping yesterday. He really hadn’t been expecting to use them. He liked to save them to exchange for krols so they could pay with regular money. A child like him had no business with SSS class beast parts. He wished he didn’t need to use that lie. Everyone in this town knew each other and there weren't plenty with the ability to take down monsters like that, let alone have enough to buy something as casual as fruit. 

“Ciel! Your back! How did it go? Did you get the fruit?” his friend yelled worriedly. He was the one who usually handled the shopping, but he was injured recently and Ciel volunteered to do it to allow his friend some rest. Alois was worried at first because Ciel was usually very bad with social interaction. Going as far as to having panic attacks on numerous occasions. But he really couldn't do the shopping today. His injury was on his leg and he knew it wouldn't heal well with him walking on it. 

Ciel understood his friend's worries. That was why he felt it absolutely necessary for this mission to be a success. He proudly showed his friend the 30 water beast fruits he brought home. 

“How did you get this much? You only left with 10,000” Alois said dumbfounded that not only did Ciel manage to get the fruit but also that he brought so much.

“The market seller was giving me a hard time. So I gave him some of these” he held out his hand showing the scales “and he was happy to give me half his stock”

“What reason did you give for having these? There is no way a child like you should have these” he was worried. It would do them no good to have these if people started to suspect them. 

“I told him my dad is a beats hunter”

“And he believed you? When you're dressed like that?”

“He probably thought I was some famous kid trying to hide my identity” he shrugged. It didn't really make sense for someone to be suspicious just because of this. Most people didn’t know about the ability beats fruit have on enigmas.

“Well it's perfect timing. I was running out of time” he shrugged off his tattered shirt revealing two dark red marks along either side of his spine. A tall tail sign of wings. Many enigmas had the ability to hide their extra appendages but most bare marks revealing the location of the non human attachments.

Ciel traced the lines on his friend back “does it hurt?” he asked. 

“No it was getting there though. What about you? How have you been holding up?” Ciel had not had the fruit in many days either but his marks looked alot like scars that traveled up his legs. If anyone saw them they would think he was abused but they would never suspect him of being an enigma. 

To show his friend, Ciel lifted his cloak to reveal what appeared to be severely scarred legs. It didn’t hurt but it sure looked like it did. “So you were almost out too huh” Alois asked while putting his shirt back on. 

“Yeah, I would have lost the ability to move my legs independently by tomorrow.”

Ciel placed the basket on the table. He took out two beast fruits and tossed one to his injured friend. Normally they could just split one, but since it had been so long since the last time, they both needed an entire fruit to themselves. 

“Why did it take so long to get these?” Ciel asked around a mouthful of the jucy blue fruit. 

“I went to the market but they didn’t have any. That guy you bought from is the only one with a team strong enough and willing to hunt that thing. Since it doesn't have much benefit for humans other than the stamina and slight health boost, they just don't care for it too much. I bet the only reason he sells any here for such a high price is cus this is an enigma breeding ground and he just doesn't know it.”

Ciel laughed at the irony of it all “the man is selling fruit to make the warriors stronger to hunt us and the other beasts while unknowingly allowing us to live here with that same fruit”. Enigmas, while mostly human shared traits with beasts and were mostly unable to completely conceal their presence. Beats fruit allows them to change their appearance to match that of the humans they live amongst. Any type of beast fruit works but it helps to eat fruit that aligns with your particular attribute. For Alois it was sky beast fruit, and for ciel it was earth beast fruit. Neither of those were sold at the market however, so they had to settle for water beast fruit. For alois that was just fine, since air and water were so close together but ciel really struggled to even get a week out of this stuff since earth was closer to fire which was the direct opposite to water. They were both extremely rare enigmas, both originating from SSS class beasts. Ciel being from the Sapphire serpent and Alois being from the unavowed Butterfly. Enigma were more powerful than the beast that they come from due to their human intelligence. The beasts had amazing powers but they could fall to weak humans due to their inability to form strategies. If a human learned how the beast attacked, they could exploit it to defeat the beast even while being less than half as strong.

Ciel’s beast the sapphire serpent had rock hard sapphire scales that protected its body from any form of physical attack. They were immune to most poison and had an incredibly strong attack. Also since their affinity was so close to fire they could hardly be damaged from fire attacks. The only way to kill them was to find one of the poisons that they were not immune to or use ancient Lightning, or Dark magic. Ciel himself was able to cover his body in the impenetrable scales. He has a strong poison that was located in glands in his mouth and hands. His normal form was like a naga. His lower half being completely serpentine while his upper half looked almost completely human aside from his fangs, claws and eyes. He was fast as a human but even faster in his true form. If he ran it would be nearly impossible to catch him.

Alois' butterfly was like a serpent in that it had a strong defense, however its attack was okay at best. The reason that the butterfly was so hard to kill was that it was so quick. They were hard to find and even harder to catch. They often pretended to be normal butterflies to get by and it took a master to see through the illusion. Its best skill was illusion magic and it left many warriors mentally scarred after battle, so much so that they never attacked the thing again. Alois had beautiful purple wings. He was able to manipulate humans by putting thought into their heads. If Alois wanted something, almost no human was strong enough to deny him.

However, neither of them were quite as strong as their beast counterparts. The main reason for this is simply because they never practiced their skills. They were hiding, living as humans. 

There were humans out there that tried to hunt enigmas. Nobody liked them but most wouldn't attack themselves because enigmas were generally harder to deal with. Instead they would call enigma hunters to deal with them. Enigma hunters, as the name implied, where people who specialize in hunting enigmas. They were not born from normal humans. Most came from the beast themselves. Certain beasts could become enigmas if they lived long enough. When they became enigmas, they were children, and they had no memory of life before their transformation. Some enigmas gather together and have enigma children, but it was rare, so there weren’t really any baby enigmas. Enigma hunters like to keep up with old beasts and catch them right as they transform.  
Ciel came from a serpent that had lived to be 2 billion years old. He knew because of a mark on his wrist signalling how long he had lived. Alois was born to parents. They were killed by an enigma who had joined the hunters for protection. Alois managed to escape but his mother, father, and brother were killed that night.

Alois remembered the night they had met. Ciel was very lost and was completely naked. He didn’t know anything other than his age. Ciel apparently came into existence on a mountain alone and confused and decided to travel to a place with people. He was badly injured and Alois felt bad for him. They both ran to a mostly isolated town. The only contact with the outside world was the market where they got their beast fruit.

“I'm feeling better already,” Alois said when he finished his fruit. He went to work immediately covering the marks on his back. Ciel soon did the same. 

“How long are we going to stay here?” Ciel asked out of the blue.

“What do you mean? It's safe here. And it was hard to find this place” Alois said, unwilling to leave the only place that felt like home since his family was killed. 

“Come on Alois you can’t be that stupid. We are both SSS class enigmas. There is no way a hunter isn't looking for a Christmas bonus hunting us.” plus they already know who we are. Ciel though but chose not to say it out loud since they both knew it. 

Back when Ciel was just an aimless wanderer he had run into some hunters. They could tell he was a new enigma and tried to kill him before he developed, but they were too late. Ciel had already learned how to use some of his powers. Though he didn’t know how to use them well and ended up severely injured. Alois had been there to save him. He tended to his wounds and found a place for them to stay as he taught Ciel many things about how life worked here. The hunters had found them soon after though and they had to run again. Ciel had injured some of them and killed others. They swore revenge on the pair and have been hunting them down since. 

“I understand. We should begin looking for a new place to stay” Alois said begrudgingly.

“After your leg heals. You won't be able to run very fast if your leg never heals properly.” he truly worried about his friend. He owed Alois so much and he felt he would never be able to pay him back for his kindness.

“Then as soon as my leg is all better we will start to move. I guess we should start packing our things then” he said with a sigh. Neither of them wanted to live like this but they had no choice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to point out errors, like my lowercase i's(I'm used to typing in word, google docs just leaves them lowercase). I will fix them.

Sebastian had been an enigma hunter ever since an enigma killed his mother. She had gone out to buy food for them but never returned. He later found out it was an enigma and it was the worst kind, the kind that came from ancient beasts. Since then he had trained in ancient dark magic to be able to take on even the strongest enigma.

Just recently he had been assigned to a mission to hunt two SSS class enigmas. He was given leadership of the mission and a team of trained hunters. Apparently one of them was a beast enigma, an unholy thing that only came into existence if a beast managed to live for too long. The other was born due the hunters inability to fully get rid of the horrible creatures before they reproduced. 

He was currently following a tip he heard from some wandering travelers that some kids had moved into a town by the sea recently. He wanted to get this mission done as quickly as possible. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. He just hoped that they hadn't developed their powers too much. 

“Mr. Sebastian?”

“Yes?” he turned around to see who called. It was one of his new recruits. He went by the name of Baldroy. He used to be a beast hunter but transferred into enigma hunting for the hell of it. 

“Sir I heard a kid with sapphire serpent scales was seen at a market two days ago.”

“What of it? The kid could have a beast hunter father. Plus we don't even know if that was the type of enigma we are hunting.”

“Yes but the locals say they had ever seen the boy before. Kid said he had a beast hunter daddy but as far as that man was concerned, ain't no one in that small town qualified to do that.”

Sebastian pulled out a map. “Point to me on this map to say where the market was” Bard pointed to Saridell, a small town that bordered the water. This matched what he heard from those travelers. 

“Round up the men and tell them we leave tonight” he said putting away the map.

“Do we really need to leave tonight? I mean this information is only for two days ago. How far can they go?” Bard said, pulling out a cigar to smoke.

“You mean it's already been two days. Those enigmas may be children but one of them came from a beast who has been able to survive for at least 10 million years.” Sebastian had lost a number of warriors from underestimating the intelligence and pure survival skill of enigma children.

“But they forget everything after they turn,” Bard argued back. He really didn’t see the rush. They were just some kids. I mean sure they had powers but they had skill. It worked for beasts and it should work for them too.

“This is why I can't stand beast hunters” he turned to Bard “They don't need to remember anything. They have instincts. Their past selves learned to survive, becoming so human in nature that they physically change into one of those things. They have all of that plus human intelligence. They won't go down with the same trick twice, they are crafty like us but with more power. We can't let them escape. Every moment they spend out there is a moment they spend learning how to blend in, how to kill us, how to get anything they want.” Bard shrinked back. He was not at all pleased at the insult about him being a beast hunter. He felt it made him more qualified, Sebastian thought it made him close minded. “And to top it all off, we don't even know what kind one of them is”

“We know what kind one of them are?” When did that happen? Just an hour ago Sebastian was complaining about lack of information about even their type.

“The kid had sapphire serpent scales right? How else would he get those. He must be one of them” Bard shivered. He fought one of those before. It had been hell, he lost more than half of his team and he didn't even manage to kill the thing. He was now beginning to understand how dire the situation was.

“I’ll go round up the hunters,” Bard said as he left. 

Now Sebastian knew what type it was. It wasn’t the same type that had killed his mother but it was one of those beasts that had the audacity to live too long. Sebastian truly believed that it was divine punishment for mankind's inability to kill those things fast enough.

Lucky for them though his affinity was for dark magic and he had learned the techniques to kill one of those things long ago. It shouldn’t be too hard as long as the second one wasn't too strong.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Ciel was almost finished packing. They really didn't have much but he had to leave some stuff behind because they needed to be quick on their feet. Alois’ leg was almost healed and so they would be leaving in three days. Ciel was worried though. He felt that they needed to leave today or else something really bad would happen, but Alois couldn’t afford to mess up his leg. They couldn’t go to a doctor and they didn’t sell things like healing potions at markets to commoners. That stuff was reserved for warriors only. Those people who ran markets knew that enigma hid among them and chose not to give out any items they thought they might need. This pretty much meant anything useful other than beast fruit would have to be acquired on their own.

Alois had an issue with killing beasts for their own personal gain. Ciel though nothing of it. He wasn’t sure if this was because he used to be one fighting tooth and nail for resources with the others or just because he didn’t mind killing. Alois saw it differently though. His parents came from beats and he felt like he was killing future parents if he did. Though it could be because he remembered how he felt when he lost his parents and became unable to take another's life. Ciel had never lost anything. He had nothing to begin with. 

The next day Alois said he was ready to go but ciel wanted to make absolutely sure his leg was healed. 

“It’s fine let’s just go already” 

“Are you sure? I don't wanna rush you. If your leg doesn’t heal then-”

“I know lets just go already” Ciel could tell Alois was angry. He loved this place. It felt like a home to him after his home had been stolen from him by the hunters. He loved Ciel’s company. He would only leave because he refused to leave his new family. He had no other reason to live.

They were on a peninsula on the east coast so their only option was to travel west. It was too predictable. The hunters would know which way they were headed and would probably attack them there. Ciel needed to think of another way. Unfortunately neither of them were avid swimmers, especially with Ciel’s poor stamina, they would never make it. Alois’ wings were very strong but he didn’t have the energy to carry both of them and all of their stuff. For now they would have to walk and hope that the hunters didn’t already know their location. And if they did get attacked, they would fight. 

“I think we should practice,” Ciel said thoughtfully. He knew their chances of completely avoiding a fight were slim but they were both very strong. Their defense was almost completely sound, so he figured they would most likely escape alive. If they were anything like the ones that attacked him before then they should be mostly fine.

“I don’t think anything we could come up with on our own would be good enough. We need to learn from the beasts.” Alois remembered how the hunters completely overpowered his parents who had been alive for over 30 years in their enigma form. They had learned many things and were stronger than the beast they came from but they were still no match for the specialized hunters. Alois knew that humans were cautious. They would send the specialized force after them, even though they are just children, and he knew depending on how much the hunters already knew the biggest reason for their caution might be that Ciel came from a beast directly. His survival instincts were a culmination of around 2 billion years of evading human attacks. 

Their biggest weakness was their ignorance. They didn’t know what the hunters knew about them. They didn’t even know how to fully utilize their abilities. The hunters only needed half a brain to understand that if Ciel was a sapphire serpent then they would need someone who knew ancient magic. 

“Ciel does my illusion magic work on you?” 

“What do you mean?”

“I know your scales are incompatible with many forms of magic so i was wondering if i could change your shape temporarily”

“Why apply the magic to me rather than to them. Alter what they see.” Ciel honestly wasn’t sure if his scales would allow the magic to change them. Though he was certain that it wouldn’t last for long even if it did work, otherwise they wouldn’t need the beast fruit. 

“I don't know who is after us. If they have masters among them it won't work, and even so it would take a second to put the spell on them. By then they would have already been able to confirm our identities.”

“Well if they do we wont go down without a fight. I know we are inexperienced but i think we can manage.”

“You don't understand. They are sending the specialist after us. My parents also thought they could fight the hunters but-” he didn’t finish his statement. They both knew what became of his parents that night. Ciel pulled his friend into a tight hug. He wasn’t underestimating the hunters, but he couldn’t think of a way to escape without a fight. They might not win but He would be damned if he was going to let something happen to Alois. Maybe this was going to be his chance to pay back Alois for all he had done. 

His thought got cut off by a startling sensation. It was if every part of Ciel's body was screaming to GET AWAY!

“Alois i think we need to leave, like Right now!” Ciel looked panicked. He had never felt this messing energy before. Not even when he almost died that time when he ran into the hunters.

“Ciel what are you-?”

“Well look who I found. The captain is gonna be really happy about this.” All of a sudden Alois didn’t need an answer to that question. His instincts kicked into high gear. His wings burst forth with so much force he almost fell over. He looped his arms around Ciel and pulled with all his strength. They needed to be out of reach quickly or-

“Oh no you don’t” The hunter pulled a device out of his pocket and activated it. For ciel it was if time had slowed down. He saw the net heading for them and he instantly knew That Alois wouldn’t be able to move out of the way in time while carrying him. He could not let Alois get captured, so he let go.

“No!! Ciel please!” With the force of his pulling and the extra weight gone Alois flew out of reach of the net. They heard a tsk from the hunter and saw that he was pulling out another device out of his pocket.

“Alois go! Please”

“I'm not leaving you!”

“If you stay here we will both get captured then neither of us will survive. If you leave you can save me. If anyone is smart enough to figure out how! I trust you.” Alois opened his mouth to say something but never got the chance as the hunter had readied another one of those net things. He dogged easily. Alois took one last look at his friend knowing despite his kind words this could very well be the last time they see each other, But not without a fight. Alois was going to prepare and he was going to rescue Ciel or he would die trying.

Ciel felt a bit of peace knowing that for now his friend would be okay. He didn’t tell Alois, but for some reason he couldn't use his abilities at all in this net. He was defenseless, and at the mercy of his enemy.

“Wow what a nice show. You don't see things like that hunting beasts” the hunter laughed as he walked toward Ciel. “That's a real nice face you got there. You look like you wanna kill me.” he stepped in real close and grabbed Ciel by his hair. “Don't think I'm gonna overlook what you just did. You're gonna be punished real good for letting him get away.” The man let Ciel go and pulled out a green glowing gem. Then spoke into it. Ciel didn’t understand what he said because it was in another language but he figured if he was talking to someone it was probably this commander he mentioned earlier. 

He didn’t have to wonder for long because several moments later a man with raven hair and garnet eyes approached them. The dangerous aura he felt now was even worse than the one he felt earlier. The one he felt earlier made Ciel want to run. This aura made him freeze. He was too terrified to do anything, even blinking required some effort.

“Hello little one” said the man with the red eyes. Ciel looked around. He seemed to be in some sort of underground cave. There were torches on the wall that were lit with blue flames making the room look cold and wet. His hands were bound and hung by the ceiling and his feet were bound dragging against the ground. His pulse quickened when he realized his situation. He didn’t even remember falling asleep but he was certain he did because he had no memory of the trip to this place. 

“Calm down little one. I won’t kill you, for now.” 

Ciel looked at the man. He was tall and he looked like he could severely injure a human child around his size. Though Ciel was no normal human. It would take more than brute force to injure his scales, wait a second, where were his scales. He couldn’t bring them forth. He couldn’t use his powers and he was in a human form because just a few days ago he ate an entire beast fruit. He trashed against his restraints. If he was lucky he might have enough strength left to break them.

“You can do that until you tire yourself out, little one. You won't be able to break free.”  
Ciel turned his head to look at him again. The tall man looked amused. “You see I took your powers away for now so that you aren't a nuisance to keep here.”

“How? Why? I've never done anything to you nor anybody else.” He tried not to show the panic on his face so he replaced it with anger. It wasn’t that hard. He was angry. Angry at the people who hunt them from birth until death for the crime of existing. He looked at the raven haired man again and flinched. His face looked much less amused and much more threatening. 

“Your kind spawn to torment us. You get so good at surviving that you develop human intelligence to get revenge on all the one who tried to hunt you. You kill for no reason, and you come from those horrid monsters who only exist to make us stronger. Your mere existence is crime enough, and you say you haven't done anything, but if you live long enough you certainly will.”

To say Ciel was shocked was an understatement. Is that what the humans thought. Ciel had no such intentions when coming into existence. His very first thought was to find others, though he didn’t know what the others were, he just knew he was looking for someone.

“Nothing to say? That's fine. I don’t really care to hear what you think. I guess it's about time I tell you how this is going to work. You're going to stay here and we are going to take your scales. We will take them off until you tell us where your friend went.” he pulled Ciel’s face up to look him in the eyes. “If you even think of being difficult I will deal with you myself.”

“Unlike you humans I am loyal to my friends. As long as I’m alive you will never hear a word about them spill from my mouth.” He glared at the man.

“Unlike You humans? Little one you seem to misunderstand. If you want to be like this we can start now.” Start what? The thing with his scales. He couldn't bring them out so he wasn’t sure what this man was trying to start.

The garnet eyed man crabbed Ciel’s face. His hand rested directly over Ciel’s mouth and nose, making it hard to breath. Ciel opened his mouth to bite him but froze when he felt a weird sensation filling his body. It was warm, no it was hot, like fire. It burned. His insides felt like they might melt. Ciel’s scream of agony was muffled by the large hand still covering his airways. He coughed. His entire body shook with the force of trying to get whatever the hell was in his body out. 

“I was going to wait until tomorrow. I'm not a cruel man. I gave you a chance to speak, and you chose to be difficult so now I'm going to be difficult and we will see who can outlast the other” Ciel couldn’t hear him. His entire body was rebelling against him. His stomach twisted painfully and suddenly the stuff rushing into him began rushing out. 

The tall man finally removed his hand when Ciel vomited all over the ground, somehow managing to not get any on himself. It was so hard to breath before, he drank in the air in greedy gulps. Ciel figured what he threw up was the remains of the beast fruit, as his skin erupted with scales all over his body. His fags elongated, along with his claws, and his eyes turned into blue slits. His disguise was forcibly undone by this man. How? He was immune to most poisons, It didn’t feel like poison. What filled his body wasn’t something that could be felt on his skin, it was more like an energy. A violent and hot energy filling his mouth and forcing out the contents of his stomach. 

Who was this man? If it wasn’t poison then he must know the ancient magic.

“Have you finally figured it out, little one? That you are no match for me. I happen to have an affinity for dark magic. That’s why I was assigned as leader on this mission, just for you. My my are we feeling special?”

Ciel didn’t know what to think. He knew his life wouldn’t be taken but for how long. Alois was going to come back here. Ciel had not actually wanted him to try and rescue him but it was the only thing he could think to say to get Alois to leave him. For now he should focus on not telling this bastard anything.

“Now I’m going to give you one more chance to make this easy for you. Like I said I am not a cruel man. That little display was to cull that useless confidence you seem to have. I only want you to make informed decisions you see. Now tell me where he is.”

Ciel grit his teeth. His mouth still tasted of acidic vomit. “And like I said I won’t tell you a thing no matter what you do to me you bastard” 

“So you want to do this the hard way. No problem, We will find out whether you tell us or not” Sebastian walked over to a table Ciel didn’t know was there until just now, and started going through a bag laying on top of it.

“Then why keep me here? If you don't need me just kill me now. Take the scales from my dead body that should be more than enough!” He wasn’t afraid of death. If he was to die he would prefer that it was from old age or that Alois killed him. If it had to be this man he would prefer his death be a quick one.

“Why? Because I hate your kind, always so prideful. Your behavior proves this. You act like it's because you're loyal to your friend but I think you’re doing this to spite me. Though none of this matters” he said as he pulled out a curved knife from the bag. It looked like the knife he had seen at the market. He was trying to remember. He thinks he saw it at the fish market. At the time he had no idea what it was for, but he felt he could make an educated guess based on personal experience. If he had to guess what it was for he would say-

“I'm going to scale you.” 

Yeah something like that.

“And I want to hear you scream”

Surely he wouldn’t be able to scale him with a regular knife like that, is what Ciel would like to say but this man proved to be full of surprises. 

“What is your name?” he didn’t really care in the moment, though it would help to know so he could stop calling him that man in his head, he truly just wanted to say something to delay the inevitable. To his credit the man looked completely taken aback by that question.

“What a strange question. I didn’t know you cared about such formalities so do forgive my lack of a proper introduction earlier.” he dipped into a deep bow “My name is Sebastian Michaelis. And you are?” he asked standing back up. Ciel really was starting to tire of Sebastian's playful attitude and he truly didn’t want to tell this bastard his name, but if it meant he could stop being called little one then he guessed it wouldn’t be so bad.

“It’s Ciel, Ciel Phantomhive”

“Ciel. I like it. Well I hope your ready now Ciel, you’ve wasted enough time”

Ciel didn’t even have time to fully process Sebastian’s words before he felt it. He was being skinned alive. His eyes opened wide but he refused to make any noise aside from the pained groans that escaped him. Sebastian wanted to hear him scream and he would do everything in his power to keep his cries internal. 

“You don't want to make any noise? That’s a shame, You were so vocal earlier. Maybe it was the element of surprise.”

Ciel was beginning to get light headed from the blood loss. So far Sebastian had only focused on his legs, mostly due to the fact that the scales became more scarce the farther up you go. Though his arms had large patches of scales. 

His legs were bleeding ceaselessly. Around the white hot pain running up his veins from each fallen scale, his brain was struggling to figure out how he was even managing to do this in the first place. “H-how?” 

“How am I able to do this. Well little one-”

“My name is Ciel. I only told you that so you would stop calling me that” for his little outburst Ciel was struck across the face with the hilt of his knife.

“Like I was saying little one. It isn’t all that hard to imbue items with magical essence. If I insert a little magic I can do this.” his knife cut out a sizable chunk of flesh. It fell to the ground with a sickening thud. A strangled moan escaped his throat but nothing else. He. will. Not. scream.

“Amazing. Your will is very strong little one. I can see I wont get any more fun sounds out of you today as it seems that you are beginning to fall asleep. We will continue tomorrow. Don't worry I won't do anything to you while you sleep. I want you to be conscious.” Sebastian grabbed his face and gave him a soft kiss on his forehead. “Good night little one”

Ciel wanted to say something back but he couldn’t keep his eyes open. He watched Sebastian leave the cave. As soon as he left all the torches went out leaving him in darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow I hate this chapter more than the other one.

**Author's Note:**

> look I know it sucks. I am allergic to reading over my work. feel free to point out mistakes and I will fix them.


End file.
